I’m often asked a lot by borrowers if they should lock their loan which is an important consideration when doing a purchase or refinance mortgage. For those that are unfamiliar with the concept: Locking refers to the lender executing a rate commitment for some period of time (typically 15, 30, 45 or 60 days) to ensure the borrower rate is secure regardless of what happens in the market throughout the loan process.

I’ll sometimes ask borrowers if they have a crystal ball to see the future and if they otherwise like to ‘roll the dice’ in Las Vegas. My point being that without the ability to see the future nobody can know for sure what is going to happen on a day to day basis with interest rates.

Moreover I always believe ‘If it looks good, smells good and feels good – it probably is”. I.e., instead of ‘floating’ the rate and worrying throughout the loan process it is better to lock than ‘rolling the dice’.

All that said, we at NGG Mortgage pride ourselves on staying up to the minute with market commentaries, experts and all current information to make our best recommendation on locking. We utilize tools that track the applicable market metrics and help us make the most educated predictions about where rates are going.

These tools are ‘real time’ unlike the news ultimately relayed to consumers through traditional media sources. In our experience, by the time you’re heard about it in the news the movement has already completed and the information is out of date.

Clients of NGG Mortgage rely upon us to be proactive in tracking rate movements and advising them on whether to lock or float the rate. We remain committed to staying ahead of the curve and doing our best to help our clients make the best of the market when the opportunity is there.

Feel free to contact me of any of our Mortgage Loan Originators to evaluate if now is the right time to lock your loan.